On 5 March 2021, the Council of Europe HELP online course on Introduction to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) was launched for more than 100 legal professionals and law students in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in cooperation with the Centre for Judicial and Prosecutorial Training of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Centre for Judicial and Prosecutorial Training of Republika Srpska.

Arben Murtezic, Director of the Centre for Judicial and Prosecutorial Training of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, welcomed participants by emphasising the relevance of the Council of Europe HELP Programme and the course on the European Convention on Human Rights for judges, prosecutors, lawyers and law students.

According to the European Commission analytical report on Bosnia and Herzegovina’s EU membership, even though some progresses were achieved at the legislative level, the main challenge remains its implementation, in particular in the field of gender equality and anti-discrimination. Gianluca Vannini, Head of Operations at the EU Delegation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, stated that the Council of Europe HELP online course is therefore relevant to support legal professionals to effectively and coherently apply European human rights standards.

Bojana Urumova, Head of the Council of Europe Office in Sarajevo, reminded participants that the European Convention on Human Rights is of upmost importance and the Council of Europe HELP online course can be widely disseminated as it is publicly available.

Participants were then provided with an introduction to the HELP Programme and its main achievements under the HELP in the Western Balkans action. Danijela Barjaktarovic, Council of Europe Department of the execution of judgments, illustrated the main challenges in the execution of judgments by recalling the principles of subsidiarity as well as the role of parliaments and national courts.

Monika Mijic, HELP tutor, illustrated the main challenges in the execution of judgments in Bosnia and Herzegovina while taking participants through the course format, structure and content. Following the launching event, the HELP online course on Introduction to the ECHR and the ECtHR will be implemented online for the selected group of participants.

The launching event was organised within the scope of the Regional action “HELP in the Western Balkans” that is a part of the joint European Union/Council of Europe programme “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey 2019-2022”, implemented by the Council of Europe.

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The Council of Europe HELP online course on Introduction to the European Convention on Human Rights and the European Court of Human Rights, was published on 31 March 2020 and since then more than 5000 users of the HELP online platform have enrolled in this course. It has a separate module on the Execution of the Judgments of the ECtHR.

This updated version of the course is already publicly available in the following language versions:

· English

· French

· Armenian

· Azerbaijani

· Bosnian

· Croatian

· Greek

· Italian

· Lithuanian

· Macedonian

· Montenegro

· Portuguese

· Russian

· Serbian

· Spanish